Hoping for a white Christmas in 2023? If you’re spending the holiday in Savannah, keep dreaming.
It’s happened just once in the more than 150 years since climatological record-keeping began in the area, according to the National Weather Service.
A couple inches lingered into the holiday in 1989 after a freak winter storm blasted areas from Florida to North Carolina. But Savannah has never seen a measurable amount of snow actually fall on Christmas Day.
That’s because coastal Georgia’s subtropical climate keeps temperatures well above freezing most of the time. Historically, the average high temperature on Dec. 25 in Savannah is 61 and the normal low is 42.
Credit: Joseph Trotz Savannah Morning News
Credit: Joseph Trotz Savannah Morning News
Warmer winter air can hold more moisture. But where that moisture falls — and whether it falls as rain or snow — mainly depends on temperatures. Fewer freezes raise the likelihood of moisture falling as rain — not snow.
Winter warming tied to climate change further stretches the already-long odds for holiday snowfall.
Winter, in fact, is Savannah’s fastest-warming season — a phenomenon being experienced by much of the U.S. Locally, the average temperature from December through February (considered the climatological winter) climbed 3.6 degrees over the past half-century, according to Climate Central, which tracks long-term weather trends.
Climate Central’s predicted probability of a snowy Savannah Christmas this year? Zero.
Savannah’s one white Christmas was a memorable one
In 1989, the largest snowstorm to ever hit the Southeast U.S. coast arrived just in time to hamper holiday travel in a region already unaccustomed to – and unprepared for – extreme wintery weather.
Snow began to fall in Savannah at about 7 p.m. on Dec. 22, according to the National Weather Service. By Christmas Eve, a total of 3.6 inches had accumulated at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport.
Credit: Bob Morris, Savannah Morning News
Credit: Bob Morris, Savannah Morning News
In South Carolina, Charleston reported 8 inches, and Myrtle Beach was buried under a record 14 inches. In Florida, areas as far south as Jacksonville were blanketed.
Frigid conditions contributed to wintry atmosphere. On Dec. 23, temperatures in Savannah peaked at just 22 degrees. That was the coldest high temperature recorded in the city for the entire 20th century. Highs climbed into the low 40s on Christmas Day, but a covering of snow remained over much of the city.
Hottest Christmas in Savannah history
Highs hit a balmy 82 degrees on Dec. 25, 2015. That’s a full 60 degrees warmer than the maximum temperature for the area’s lone White Christmas and more than 20 degrees above the normal high.
Other Savannah Christmas weather extremes
While the absence of snow is pretty much a sure bet, predicting whether shirtsleeves or ugly sweaters will be appropriate for Savannah’s holiday season is a challenge. Over the last four Christmases, for example, the high temperatures yo-yoed from 69 in 2019 to 44 in 2020, to 73 in 2021 and back down to 45 last year.
The coldest Christmas ever in Savannah was in 1983, when the low dipped to 10 degrees. That actually tied for the fourth-coldest temperature ever recorded in the city (the all-time low was 3 degrees on Jan. 21, 1985).
A year later, in 1984, Savannah hit 80 degrees on Christmas.
Savannah experienced its wettest Christmas back in 1873, when nearly 2 inches of rain soaked the area.
John Deem covers climate change and the environment in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at jdeem@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah has only had one white Christmas. Do you remember the historic day?
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